Why is Restoring the Flow important to our Board Chair?

Posted on: April 7th, 2016

Help us Restore the Flow by May 3, 2016! Â DRCC/TAG’s core work of meaningfully engaging people in the cleanup of the Duwamish River took a significant hit with the elimination of a key source of funding last week. Â We are asking your support to raise $20,000 by May 3 to begin addressing this gap in funding!

This week, our Board Chair, Aaron Smith, shares a little bit about why he thinks the work of DRCC/TAG is important:

During this campaign, you will hear a lot about the significant and outstanding work that DRCC/TAG does in the community from many people and organizations, how we are effecting fundamental change in our community. Â If you’re familiar with our work – this won’t beÂ surprising. And I whole-heartedly agree willÂ all of this – but I’d like to step back and put this work in perspective –Â why is public participation in toxic cleanup work important?

Many people have not experienced what itâ€™s like when a Superfund Cleanup comes to town. Suddenly you are hearing that you live near one of the most hazardous sites in the country.Â Â What does this mean?Â Â You might cycle through emotions that range from denial to panic.Â You donâ€™t necessarily make the connection right away that the chemicals you hear about – like polychlorinated biphenyls or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – could have a detrimental impact on your health. These facts might make you feel like you have lost control of your health, your property, your quality of life.

Then a federal agency proposes a cleanup plan. You might be skeptical. You might distrust a plan that is designed by people who donâ€™t live in your community. What does it mean that parties potentially responsible for the contamination have helped provide some of the scientific information that form the basis for the cleanup plan? What are the motives of the local governments and businesses involved in this plan?

DRCC/TAGâ€™s work is aimed at ensuring the reality of the cleanup does notÂ become overwhelming.Â The fundingÂ we are asking you to help restoreÂ is incredibly important to our communities right here in Seattle.Â Â That funding helps create a meaningful public participation throughout this cleanup process. That funding means ensuring a trusted source for information to help decipher the highly technical processes involved in a cleanup.Â It supports your ability to have a voice to shape a cleanup that better protects you, your children, your neighbors, and wildlife from health concerns and helps our community achieve a more permanent and lasting cleanup.

Whether you live in a community along the Duwamish River, in the greater Seattle area, or anywhere else in the country,Â we hope you understand the value in engaging and empowering our communities and how we can all benefit from this effort.Â Our voices shouldn’t be quieted because our state legislature decided that this would be an easy budget fix.Â

We hope that you will help us restore the funding that truly helps DRCC/TAG maintain the high quality of our core services and outreach work.